Matthews defends 'dog whistle' accusations

9/22/12 7:51 PM EDT

MSNBC host Chris Matthews defended his accusations against Republican "dog whistles" Friday night, telling HBO's Bill Maher that he has been widely thanked by African-Americans for his willingness to address Republican efforts to widen the "racial divide."

Matthews campaign won him national attention during the Republican national convention when he attacked RNC chairman Reince Priebus for playing the race card against President Barack Obama. In an interview with POLITICO at the time, he accused Republicans of "dividing the country along racial lines," a charge that he would repeat on his MSNBC program, Hardball with Chris Matthews, throughout the week and after.

Matthews reiterated many of the points he made in that interview -- right down to encounters with fans in Mozambique and Jamaica -- on HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher Friday night. Asked if he was "taking heat for being willing to call a comment racist before anyone else has raised the issue," Matthews replied:

Everybody I've met who's African-American has come up to me, about six inches away from me and very personally said, 'Thank you.' I met some people in Mozambique, I met some people in Jamaica. It is an international reality and everybody feels it on that side of the racial divide. It's disgusting that white people, to whom the dog whistle is aimed, refuse to acknowledge it. It's there, it's been part of our politics. We thought it was gone, it's back and it's being used to get votes.